diff --git a/codestyle/pmd-ruleset.xml b/codestyle/pmd-ruleset.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f10d4f3da19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/codestyle/pmd-ruleset.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+  ~ Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+  ~ or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+  ~ distributed with this work for additional information
+  ~ regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+  ~ to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+  ~ "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+  ~ with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+  ~
+  ~   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  ~
+  ~ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+  ~ software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+  ~ "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+  ~ KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+  ~ specific language governing permissions and limitations
+  ~ under the License.
+  -->
+
+<ruleset name="Apache Druid PMD ruleset"
+    xmlns="http://pmd.sourceforge.net/ruleset/2.0.0"
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://pmd.sourceforge.net/ruleset/2.0.0 https://pmd.sourceforge.io/ruleset_2_0_0.xsd">
+
+  <description>
+This ruleset defines the PMD rules for the Apache Druid project.
+  </description>
+
+  <rule ref="category/java/codestyle.xml/UnnecessaryImport" />
+  <rule ref="category/java/codestyle.xml/TooManyStaticImports" />
+  <rule ref="category/java/codestyle.xml/UnnecessaryFullyQualifiedName"/>
+</ruleset>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 25957c887b0..744d19de89e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -966,6 +966,13 @@
                 <groupId>com.google.caliper</groupId>
                 <artifactId>caliper</artifactId>
                 <version>0.5-rc1</version>
+                <exclusions>
+                    <!-- caliper ships a very old asm version which can cause issues during testing  -->
+                    <exclusion>
+                        <groupId>asm</groupId>
+                        <artifactId>*</artifactId>
+                    </exclusion>
+                </exclusions>
                 <scope>test</scope>
             </dependency>
             <dependency>
@@ -1265,11 +1272,12 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.14.0</version>
+                <version>3.15.0</version>
                 <configuration>
+                    <linkXRef>false</linkXRef> <!-- prevent "Unable to locate Source XRef to link to" warning -->
                     <printFailingErrors>true</printFailingErrors>
                     <rulesets>
-                        <ruleset>/rulesets/java/imports.xml</ruleset>
+                        <ruleset>${project.parent.basedir}/codestyle/pmd-ruleset.xml</ruleset>
                     </rulesets>
                     <excludeRoots>
                         <excludeRoot>target/generated-sources/</excludeRoot>